


Just Ben

by idrilhadhafang



Series: Darkpilot Fix-Its [4]
Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Ending, Angst with a Happy Ending, Ben Solo Lives, Exile, M/M, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker Fix-It, Tatooine (Star Wars)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-21
Updated: 2020-08-21
Packaged: 2021-03-06 18:22:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 485
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26033389
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/idrilhadhafang/pseuds/idrilhadhafang
Summary: The redeemed Ben Solo settles down on Tatooine with Poe Dameron.
Relationships: Poe Dameron/Ben Solo, Poe Dameron/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren
Series: Darkpilot Fix-Its [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1883926
Comments: 2
Kudos: 7
Collections: Gen Prompt Bingo Round 18





	Just Ben

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt: The Hermit
> 
> Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Tatooine. He knew that place, at least from Uncle Luke’s stories. Even as the Falcon touched down, Ben Solo, formerly Kylo Ren, knew that in the end, it was what he deserved. Rey had been merciful in arguing with the rebuilt Republic that he really should be exiled instead of executed or imprisoned. Ben knew that much. Poe had also argued for him — had agreed to come with him, against all odds.   
  
_“I’m tired of fitting into the role of what your mom wanted me to be,”_ Poe said to him, on the ride there. _“I’m not the man your mom wanted me to be. I’m not someone she can mold like clay.”_  
  
It had broken his heart. Ben knew that much. There was something in Poe that was just gone, never to come back. He wondered if he had contributed, in a way. If he hadn’t been such a coward. If he had defied Snoke. Poe had said he wasn’t weak. Ben wondered if it was more than he deserved, actually. He had hurt Poe. Poe, a man with a heart as big as the oceans...a heart he’d broken.   
  
How Poe was able to look at him, accept him — he could only assume that it was part of the miracle of Poe Dameron.   
  
“We’re here.” Ben sighed even as he walked off the loading ramp. “This was where it all began, wasn’t it?”   
  
_My grandfather grew up in slavery there. My grandfather killed there. My uncle suffered there, my mother suffered there..._ It had been wise, Ben thought, that Rey had told him how stupid an idea it was to bury the lightsabers on Tatooine.   
  
Rey. Good as his cousin, his family. He hoped it wouldn’t be too hard on her, losing her family all over again.   
  
Poe followed him. Ben turned to look at him. “Poe,” he said. “You don’t have to come with me.”  
  
“It’s the first step in a while that feels like my own.”  
  
Poe walked down the ramp then, and joined Ben. Entwined his hand in Ben’s.   
  
Ben forgot how much he missed it.   
  
***  
  
The Lars homestead was all but covered in sand. Even using the Force to pull back the sand, cleaning it away, Ben found that it looked better — even if it looked like a shell of the homestead it once was. “It seems like there’s ghosts haunting the place,” Ben said.   
  
Poe smiled. “We’ll learn to live with them.”  
  
***  
  
The old woman greeting them, curiously, said that nobody had come by in quite some time. “It’s a pity about Owen and Beru Lars,” she said. “They were good people. You’re living here now?”  
  
“Pretty much,” Ben said.   
  
“Who are you?” said the old woman.   
  
“Ben.”  
  
“Ben who?”  
  
He’d think of a name. Maybe one day he’d take the name “Dameron”. Maybe. For now, he’d had enough of names, and the legacy behind them.   
  
“Just Ben.”


End file.
